State and federal law enforcement officials across the country are teaming up to stop despondent homeowners from needlessly shelling out thousands of dollars in an attempt to save their homes from foreclosure.

The Federal Trade Commission announced recently it is leading “Operation Loan Lies,” a coordinated effort involving 25 federal and state agencies to shut down firms that are deceptively marketing foreclosure rescue and mortgage modification services. These companies often do little or nothing to help homeowners renegotiate their mortgages or stop foreclosures, the FTC and officials say.

The FTC said it has brought 14 cases since April, while 23 state attorneys general and other agencies participating in this operation have taken action against 178 companies.

Even in light of these actions, I’m afraid officials have a tough mission in trying to prevent these schemes. There are just too many charlatan companies and too many hopeless homeowners.

Naturally, as vultures do when they spot an ailing creature, scam artists have been circling and feeding off people’s desperation to keep their homes. Companies advertising on radio and television promise to “rescue” homeowners from foreclosures, for a fee. And those fees are hefty — ranging from just under $1,000 to more than $5,000. The companies are taking advantage of the fact that hundreds of thousands of homeowners are still not seeing relief via federal and state programs created to enable a faster pace of loan refinances and modifications.

The Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable, which involves various programs, promised to help millions of people save their homes from foreclosure. In an effort to reach more troubled homeowners, the administration recently expanded one part of that effort to help borrowers who are up to 125 percent underwater on their mortgages. Previously, under the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) only those borrowers whose first mortgage did not exceed 105 percent of the current market value of the property were eligible for the program. So now, for example, if your property is worth $200,000 but you owe $250,000 or less on your first lien mortgage you may qualify for HARP.

In February when the administration first announced its housing campaign, the Treasury Department estimated that the initiative would “offer assistance to as many as 7 to 9 million homeowners.”

The Housing and Urban Development agency said in a recent release that “more than 200,000 borrowers have received offers for trial loan modifications” and “tens of thousands of refinances and trial modifications are under way.”

Since the mortgage crisis began, the FTC, state attorneys general, housing authorities and housing nonprofit groups have been pleading with homeowners to steer clear of for-profit loan-modification companies. Many state legislatures have passed laws prohibiting such companies from collecting upfront fees in hopes of preventing foreclosure rescue scams.

The problem is that many homeowners, when faced with foreclosure, panic and think that paying a for-profit company will get them better and faster results. Unfortunately that typically doesn’t happen.

People can seek help from a nonprofit housing counselor by calling (888) 995-HOPE (4673) or online at www.hopenow.com. Across the country, community-based organizations are holding foreclosure prevention workshops.

Violent police encounters in California last year led to the deaths of 157 people and six officers, the state attorney general’s office said Thursday in a report that provides the first statewide tally on police use-of-force incidents.

At 6:03 p.m. Wednesday, police responded to reports of the robbery at the facility, 2301 Bancroft way, and learned that a man who snuck into the facility and began prowling through the building, taking cell phones and wallets from victims.

Investigators’ efforts to solve the case led to the arrests of Pablo Mendoza, 25, of Hayward, Brandon Follings, 26, of Oakland and Valeria Boden, 26, of Alameda, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday.